basic payment scheme

NSA chief executive Phil Stocker said there are sheep farmers who have 'wholeheartedly thrown themselves into the SFI pilot', whose agreements have now ended with no certainty over continuation into SFI and fears over budget cutbacks

Jeremy Moody, secretary and advisor to Central Association of Agricultural Valuers said the Government's claim that only quarter of farms will be impacted by Inheritance Tax changes ‘misses half of the picture and so understates the effects of the change'

The Farmers Guardian news team give their analysis of the Chancellor's Budget

£157.8 million has been paid to over 15,500 Welsh farm businesses

Graham Redman, partner at agribusiness consultants The Andersons Centre said the business aspect of farming was pressing on the farming community ‘even more so than ever before', and he urged farmers to look beyond the headline figures on Government environmental schemes, which he said could look appealing but came with ‘obligations' and ‘costs'

Sean Fitzpatrick, of the Northern Ireland Agricultural Producers' Association, said: "How can anyone expect our sheep farmers to maintain this when their income, which needs to support not only a business but a home, is getting significantly cut?"

CLA senior land use policy adviser Cameron Hughes said the range of Capital Grants available were 'particularly worth investigating'

TFA chief executive George Dunn said he believes farmers should be encouraged to consider what investment they need in their businesses over a three-year period and then use those plans to apply for a level of annual grant to support those goals

Applications for the new Integrated Natural Resources Scheme (INRS) are until September 27